Infernal Blow Chieftain (Facebreaker) Build (PoE Synthesis 3.6)

Introduction

Infernal Blow is a melee skill that can be utilized for clearing to great success. It essentially allows you to detonate enemies’ corpses upon killing them, which can result in a great chain reaction.

For this particular build guide, we choose to use the Facebreaker unique gloves, since they are very cheap and you can build around them with little currency investment. The build can also be played with many weapon choices.

For the ascendancy, we choose to go with Chieftain, because of the great synergy this class has with Fire-themed builds. It allows us to fully convert our damage to Fire, gives us a great amount of Life leech and regeneration, Fire penetration and a huge rotational damage buff.

The build uses Resolute Technique, which allows us to not worry about Hit Chance, easily reaches over 230% increased maximum Life, and has enough damage to deal with the endgame.

Build Summary

All you need in order to start playing is a pair of the unique Facebreaker gloves. A near perfectly rolled ones should not cost more than a couple of Chaos Orbs. Beyond that, you should focus on stacking as much flat Physical damage added to attacks as possible, since this is your main source of damage, which is greatly scaled by your Gloves.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

- Mediocre mobility
- Mediocre single target

Playstyle

Offensively, you will be able to hit monsters from distance via the Ancestral Call Support gem. A single Infernal Blow hit will be enough to one-shot most monster packs. When fighting single targets, having adds near the boss will allow you to explode them and deal great amount of damage. Vaal Ancestral Warchief will help out with additional single target damage.

Defensively, achieving a great Life pool and a lot of Life regeneration and Life leech is what the build is all about. The Infernal Blow Chieftain also has great Physical mitigation via the additional Endurance charges and 10% of Physical damage taken as Fire via the Romoka, Sun’s Light ascendancy node.

For Playstyle, hitting a pack of monster once or twice will be enough to destroy them and move forward. Infernal Blow’s explosion scales great into endgame, simply because it deals % of monster’s maximum life. Blood Rage can be used for additional Attack Speed and Frenzy charges.

Ascendancy, Passive tree, Bandits and Pantheons

Ascendancy (Marauder – Chieftain)

Ngamahu, Flame’s Advance

Hinekora, Death’s Fury

Tawhoa, Forest’s Strength

Ramako, Sun’s Light

Ngamahu, Flame’s Advance allows you to fully convert your damage from Physical to Fire, which makes your Fire penetration that much more efficient; the rotational damage buff and additional 10% Fire penetration make this ascendancy node very powerful.Hinekora, Death’s Fury provides great amount of Life leech along with the ability to Cover enemies in Ash, which slows their movement speed by 20% and increases their Fire damage taken by 20% for 4 seconds after you hit them.Tawhoa, Forest’s Strength introduces the Endurance charge generation mechanic into the build, while also making your Endurance charges more efficient.Ramako, Sun’s Light provides great amount of defense in the form of Life regeneration, Physical damage mitigation and Ignite immunity.

Passive tree

Here is the endgame passive skill tree for the Infernal Blow Chieftain. The main keystone notable we pick is Resolute Technique, which allows us to always hit; Facebreaker builds have Hit Chance problems in general, since you cannot scale Accuracy Rating efficiently via weapon passive nodes. We focus on picking a lot of Jewel sockets, since Abyssal Jewels are very powerful for this particular build. Beyond that, we focus on getting all the Endurance charges, maximum Life, Mana and Life leech. Weapon nodes do not scale our damage since we are Unarmed; Spiritual Aid and the minion nodes leading up to it are very point-efficient and provide good amount of damage, which applies to us.

Bandits

Considering the build does not benefit from helping any specific bandit we choose to kill them all in Act II.

Pantheons

Major: Even though every single major god can be used in the build, Soul of Solaris has a lot of raw defense power when fully upgraded and we recommend using it. Soul of the Brine King is also useful if you feel like stun is an issue.

Minor:Soul of Shakari is the recommended minor god. It brings poison immunity and more defense to chaos damage. Other minor gods can be used depending on personal preference.

For all the gem links we provide below, keep in mind that we list the gems in order of priority (starting from the top left, going to the right on each row of the links), meaning that if you lack the required number of sockets to fit all the gems, the first ones to drop are the ones at the bottom (with the bottom right being the last). Also note that in-game, as long as the sockets are linked, it makes no difference at all what order the gems are placed in.

Infernal Blow (6-Link)

Infernal Blow is a melee skill, which detonates enemies upon killing them, which results in great clear speed. The skill also applies two debuffs, which allow you to also deal good single target damage. We recommend using two different links for single target and clearing.

Shield Charge (4-Link)

Shield Charge is used in a universal 4-Link that is useful in many builds. Using Blood Magic Support will allow you to charge around without having mana issues. Hitting enemies with Shield Charge will provide the Fortify effect for additional damage mitigation.

Gearing

Capping your elemental resistances is essential and it should always be your top priority in any build; it should be the first thing you do when gearing up a character. Obtaining a 6-link, while very powerful and certainly recommended, can potentially be very expensive (requiring an average of 1500 Orbs of Fusing, obviously depending on your luck); as such, this should not really be a goal for you while gearing up, and you should instead settle for a 5-link until you have enough resources. All you need for the build is a pair of the unique Facebreaker gloves, ideally you would want them with a roll of 790%+ “more Physical Damage with Unarmed Attacks”.

Helmet

Deidbell and Its upgraded version Deidbellow are both a good choice for the build because of the great flat physical damage they give. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental Resistances (until capped)

Maximum Life (at least 80)

% Increased Maximum Life (Pristine Fossil)

Nearby Enemies have -9% to Fire Resistance (Scorched Fossil)

Body Armour

Offensively, Loreweave is the best choice. Belly of the Beast brings a lot of tankiness to the build. Rare body armour can also be used. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental Resistances (until capped)

Maximum Life (at least 100)

% Increased Maximum Life (Elder mod; Pristine Fossil)

Socketed Gems are supported by Level 1 Maim (Serrated Fossil)

Gloves

Facebreaker is the obvious choice. Try to get a pair with 750%+ “more Physical Damage with Unarmed Attacks”. These gloves can be corrupted for additional mods:

Elemental Weakness, Temportal Chains or Enfeeble on Hit

% increased maximum Life

% increased Attack Speed

+1 to Maximum to Frenzy charges

Boots

A pair of Bubonic Trail are best in slot for the build but can get very expensive, especially with two Abyssal sockets. Instead you can use a rare pair of boots. The rare affix priority is:

Amulet

Best in slot is a rare Amulet with high flat physical damage roll. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental Resistances (until capped)

Maximum life (at least 60)

Adds # – # Physical damage to attacks

Gain % of Non-Chaos Damage as Extra Chaos Damage (Elder mod)

Elemental damage with attacks (at least 25%)

Rings

Same as the amulet, we are looking for high flat physical roll. Make sure you choose Steel Rings due to the additional damage it brings to the build. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental Resistances (until capped)

Maximum life (at least 50)

Adds # – # Physical damage to attacks

Elemental damage with attacks (at least 25%)

Desired Attributes (Intelligence; Dexterity)

Weapon

Since we need to be Unarmed while using Facebreaker, we do not wield a weapon.

Shield

Great Old One's Ward is a great choice because of the additional damage it provides. A well rolled rare Shield will outclass this unique. The rare affix priority is:

Elemental Resistances (until capped)

Maximum life (at least 80)

Flat Physical damage (crafted)

Flasks

Quicksilver flask, preferably of Adrenaline for additional movement speed. An instant or half-instant Divine Life flask with Bleeding Removal should be used. Basalt flask is a great defensive choice in every build, especially this one. Atziri's Promise; Lion's Roar; The Wise Oak; Taste of Hate – These three unique flasks bring a lot of damage to the build and should be purchased depending on the currency you have to spend. Any other utility flask can be used, based on personal preference.

Jewels

There is no other unique jewel that outweighs the power of Abyssal jewels with flat Physical damage to Attacks and Life. The Rare Abyssal jewel Affix Priority is:

Maximum Life (at least 35)

Adds # to # Physical Damage to Attacks

Note: Besides these two mods you can improvise.

Leveling

As a reminder, we have several guides to help you level up a character.

You can start playing the Infernal Blow Chieftain as early as level 16, when you can equip Facebreaker.

Leveling Trees

Here is an example of the passive skill tree before maps. We rush Resolute Technique, then take the most efficient route, damage and Life wise. You do not need the Endurance charges until you do the Merciless labyrinth. You should head to Duelist first, since you might struggle with Mana, the Mana and Life leech node should fix this problem.

Useful Leveling Unique Items

As you begin a new character, there are few unique items that can boost your power exponentially. Tabula Rasa allows you to have a 6-Linked skill as early as you get the gems. Wanderlust gives a decent movement speed, which will make your leveling that much more efficient. Goldrim provides a lot of elemental resistances, this will let you worry less about gearing when approaching certain Act encounters.

If you are a new player (or if this is your first character for the league), then note that obtaining these items will be very difficult, if not impossible. They are rare drops, which you can otherwise only acquire if you have saved up currency, so do not focus on them too much, and instead simply look for items that match the affix priorities listed in the gearing section above.

Gem Progression

Using Tabula Rasa will allow you to have 6-Link gem setups early on, which is why we show such examples below. If you cannot get Tabula Rasa (or another item with a 6-Link), then simply prioritize the first gems in each link provided below.

In order to acquire gems that are not available to your class as a quest reward, simply ask a friend to buy them off vendors for you, or buy them yourself from Sioasa in The Library in Act III Library.